Need a better source for BSFL & other feeders (USA)

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zampano

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Hey all,

I want to find a new main retailer to use to get our BSFL and other feeders. I've had so many shipping difficulties lately I'd prefer it be a one-stop shop where I don't have to coordinate/pay for different shipping form different places.

Ideally, they'd have BSFL but also dubias, and then hopefully some superworms, maybe the occasional horn worm or wax worm as a treat, but mainly BSFL and dubias I guess.

I'm having major customer service problems with DubiaRoaches.com unfortunately, and we like their bugs but I'm finding it just too unreliable and it's ending up costing me a lot of money trying to bridge the gaps with them. (the problems have been on their end mind ya, not USPS)

I like the service from Mulberry Farms but the reason I tried to stop using them is that the substrate they use is really moist and chewy and I have a hard time sifting the larvae out and not making a mess, losing some along the way, etc. Sometimes I'm in a rush to get the bugs fed and frankly the drier, finer substrate DubiaRoaches uses is really simple and fast to throw in a sifter and get the bugs shaken out really quick. Also Tifa seems to like the ones from DubiaRoaches more for whatever reason.

I've heard Sympton is the best place to get BSFL from but they don't really sell anything else. Also kinda pricey. So, hope I'm not asking for too much, but can anyone suggest a good site that has the bugs I want, and also has easy-to-care for, easy-to-sift BSFL?

Thanks as always!

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CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
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Are you able to start a roach colony? That would help isolate you from shipping and customer service issues at least for one feeder. I get my BSFL from Symton and have been happy with their product and shipping. I usually get silk worms from Coastal Silkworms and hornworms from Great Lakes Hornworm. Both of those vendors have been good to me. My dragon is an adult so doesn't eat many bugs - only a few shipments of each per year. Not exactly the consolidation you're asking for, but if one of those vendors offers multiple bug types that you're looking for it may be a good way to go.
 

KarrieRee

BD.org Sicko
Beardie name(s)
Hiccup he is 6 and Blaze is 4
You can try www.reptilianarts.com they have roaches and silk and super worms and are pretty fast at getting orders out- I ordered from mulberryfarms 2 weeks ago and still have not got a shipping notice yet - I ordered from reptilian arts Fri and my order has shipped already - I ordered super worms and silk - I am stocked up on roaches -- they usually have bulk silk but are out so I ordered cup w/ food - the bulk come small and no food so you would need to order that if you ever order from them - my last order from coastal I was not happy w/ - the worms came really wet and just yucky looking and I ended up losing a lot of them -- I ended up taking them out of the containers they came in and transferring them to some others that I had gotten from reptilian arts that I had washed out - I only know of mulberry that sells all that your looking for and at this time their shipping is really behind-- I am sorry to hear about dubiaroaches.com they have always been my go to place for roaches and other worms especially horn they come small and clean - the last time I got supers from them I was not real happy w/ either but I have not ordered from them for awhile
Karrie
 

zampano

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Owe you both for the sage advice, as always!

I'm going to look into all this. I'm really hoping my DubiaRoaches order goes out today so I'm still trying not to order anything at this moment, but probably again real soon. Tifa is still young and getting hungrier by the day, so we're going through bugs like nobody's business.

The problem I had with dubiaroaches.com (2nd time I've had a major delay) is that I ordered my stuff 2 Fridays ago, and everything was listed as 'in stock.' They sent me tracking info on Sunday, which I took to mean they'd be given to USPS in the next day or so. I wrote them later in the week after no movement and they told me they were still waiting for my BSFL to reach adulthood in order to ship out ('hopefully by next week' they said). As of today still nothing. I don't know why they don't consider this 'out of stock' but I was pretty bummed. They offered me a refund on shipping but I've already spent an arm and a leg trying to bridge the gap, since my city and the surrounding area has virtually no live feeders available anywhere right now. Anyway, 2nd time I've had to wait for weeks from them, takes them 3-4 days just to answer any of my emails, so as much as I liked them to begin with, I wanna look elsewhere.

As for the roach colony (or raising any colony for that matter), something I'll continue to look into, but was just more work and equipment and time than I wanted to put towards it. Same thing with my Mulberry BSFL complaints. I hate to sound so lazy but I'm trying to get this all down to a fairly simple science where I can just keep some cups of bugs on the shelf as they arrive and easily feed them as needed, if I'm in a hurry especially.

Tifa's never had a live silkworm and I'm sure she'd go absolutely nuts for it, so we'll need to try that. Usually Mulberry and Dubia are out of stock of them and they seemed pretty pricey, so I decided to put that off. To be honest though, I have many times fed her those fresh-packed EcoFresh silkworms from Petco, when I'm fresh out of live feeders, and she loves them more than anything, despite their non-wiggliness. Super cute to watch her gobble one down. I know I should be sticking to live feeders at pretty much all times but I'm glad there's a still somewhat nutritional option like that for emergencies, rather than dried or canned foods.

So in the same fashion of my laziness, I'd probably be opting for a cup w/ food for the silkworms most likely, when I try that. Coastal looks a little cheaper but ReptilianArts looks like I could get a cup or two of silkworms and get some dubias and supers while I'm at it. So it's not BSFL, but still the kind of bundling I'm looking for.

Sorry you're going through a similar delay with Mulberry, Karrie. I like them too but they seem to run out of stock of stuff I want left and right, and like I said, not a huge fan of their BSFL packaging. I had some good experiences with their postage-paid packs specifically.

And I'm looking at Great Lakes Hornworms too and seems like it would be a good place to get some special treats for special occasions for her, wax and horns and whatnot.

Well, looks like I've got more homework to do but this is all great advice. I think maybe for my next order I'll try bundling some stuff from RA and maybe finally give Sympton a shot. Don't like needing to pay for multiple shipments but if it gets me the good stuff and it arrives more or less on time I'd still be saving money in the end.

Thanks again! If any other suggestions please keep em coming folks!

all the best
 

Longfellow777

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Frey'ja
I go through symton for my BSFL and they usually throw like 100 extra into it, always active and alive great price too 18.00 for 1,000. I get my roaches and otherwise from aafeeder.com Great prices you can get like 1,000 dubai for around 50 dollars and only ever a few dead and i live in very hot area. They ship quick and all tracking info always know where they are at, on the way to my house. AAfeeder.com also has the BSFL however i dont get them through them anymore because i was paying 12.50 for 250 of them. I get much more for my money with symtom and they specialize in healthy BSFL anyway so it works out. I hope this Helps

The Longfellows
 

zampano

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Hey Longfellows,

Thanks for your advice. I don't think I've actually come across AAfeeders yet, and I'll definitely try them out next time I'm in need of some more dubias.

I'm actually currently waiting on my first BSFL order from Sympton (included some dubias too, despite them being kinda costly- at least I could bundle them in with the cheap shipping). The good reputation they have and the cheap shipping was appealing (couldn't find out what kind of substrate they use with theirs and that'll probably factor into my overall review of them). I ordered large for the first time and I hope that makes tong-feeding them (I have to at this point or she doesn't chew) easier.

..That said, I placed my order Saturday and today (Wednesday) it still hasn't shipped...the weather and the covid and the mail are making things tough for sure but I was hoping to have at least one order go through lately where I didn't have to wait on pins and needles. I'm again needing to go out today in search of some roaches, or at least crickets, to get us over the gap.

I'm probably going to start looking into reptile shops in the surrounding area that I could get a decent selection of feeders from. There's only a few but they're out there, just kinda far from home. Even if it takes half a day on public transit I feel like I could still have a little more control over how much this all costs me and when I get what I need. But until I find the right solution, I'm gonna keep trying all these sites optimal service/cost.

If anyone has any reasons I should be wary of buying feeders from local shops that I'm not aware of feel free to let me know. Like the two shops nearby really only have crickets most of the time and they both just keep them in cardboard boxes w/ egg crates on the ground, not exactly super secure looking, but I've bought them before without any noted problems. I won't lie, I like getting bugs from reputable sources and packaged cleanly and neatly. It's just the mail I hate :banghead:

thanks and best to ya,
 

Longfellow777

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Frey'ja
No problem and im sorry to hear about symtombsfl i usually dont have an issue usually two days and its on its way to me. Have they been fufilled? do you have a tracking number for them, have they left symtom? if not man im sorry i havent had an issue like that. I live in AR though and heard im in one of the best states to get mail, i guess being somwhat in the middle of U.S.
Well aafeeder.com has great bubia and they will discount bsfl with your order kind of like you did with symtom just the other way around its reasonable and man they get my stuff out in a flash. Unless its supplies then it may take longer sometimes like leashes hammocks etc. But yeah they usually always have it out next day of purchase. They also have a shipping choice for USPS ground which is free i believe and then they have ground fed ex and its only a few bucks and the fed ex is the way i go its here swiftly. Even the usps i am waiting on some buffalo beatle through them on the free ground through usps, i made that order monday night and they will be here tomorrow (thur). So yeah i am always happy with AAFEEDER.COM
 

zampano

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Thanks for the further info, I'm looking forward to trying working with them. We're actually visiting the vet tomorrow due to some digestion issues Tifa's having. Even when I needle poke my BSFL and feed them one-by-one she doesn't process them all and passes some of them whole, so I'm thinking as much as we like BSFL, I might wanna try to switch to dubias as more of a staple if I can. I planned on asking the vet if they had any tips specific to Tifa's needs too. But as far as AAfeeders, hopefully things go well with them!

As for Sympton, they produced a label for me Monday evening but it just hasn't been marked as received by USPS yet. I know that can mean sometimes that USPS has it but hasn't scanned it (dunno if these companies tender their packages by hand so they get scanned upon receipt or not?). But like my experience with dubiaroaches.com, they informed me that my BSFL just weren't mature enough to be shipped yet. I assumed if that problem is endemic at any rate it's probably more of a BSFL issue than a roach issue but then again dunno why exactly I suspected that. I guess my main hope for all bugs was that, unless marked as 'out of stock,' that they were ready to be shipped. Maybe setting my hopes too high. I live in San Francisco, so even though none of these feeder companies seem to be on the west coast, usually mail doesn't have too hard a problem getting my way since there's so much industry here and a major airport nearby.

When I do an order with AA I will add some discounted BSFL to my order and see how those work out. The prices kind of even out considering the discount and the $ saved on shipping. Who knows, maybe that's the magic ticket I've been looking for )

thanks again LF
 

Longfellow777

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Frey'ja
No problem man, and im a Cali Guy myself born and raised southern though riverside county. Yeah man i have a feeling youll love the aafeeder.com the substrate however is pretty fine and moist like you had mentioned but if you plan on feeding her more dubai than bsfl and she loves bsfl you can get like 250 discounted after dubai purchase and just give her a few here and there. Im sorry to hear your Tifa is not feeling well Ill pray for you and yours and hope she gets better swiftly. BTW that name wouldnt happen to be a Final Fantasy fadam is it ?
 

zampano

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Yeah I’ll give em a try when I can. I just took a train to Berkeley to the reptile shop I got my dragon from and got a bunch of dubia. Big ones, I’ll have to make sure they’re safe size on a one by one basis but probably good enough. I guess they also carry BSFL but were out anyway today.

Of course the train I took was almost $10 round trip- which is more than I usually pay for shopping, and the roaches were pretty expensive too. However I keep spending an arm and a leg on interim feeders every time I place an online order and it doesn’t come fast enough :D sooo...I am taking this option as a net gain. At least I can call them ahead of time and pick them up later that day.

Thanks for the well wishing. She seemed pretty depressed today so I’m glad we’re gonna finally get her looked at. Although I’m sure the travel across town will drive her nuts on its own)

The full name is Antifa. We decided it was a most timely name that we thought would make a good girl or boy name. We usually call her Tifa or Teefs for short, but also I’m just aware that the more I type her full name on the internet the more databases I’m probably going into :p
 

Longfellow777

Sub-Adult Member
Beardie name(s)
Frey'ja
Happy to hear that you will figure out whats going on with her. Stolked to hear you got some dubai bro and hope your troubles with stable staple vendors are coming to an end check out aafeeder to next time you want to gamble online. Best of luck to yah
 

zampano

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Hey again experts,

Got my shipment from Sympton finally (almost 2 weeks) and wanted to tack on a couple follow up questions if I may, didn't feel the need for a new thread:

1. My BSFL seem mostly alive but the container is totally full on top of that hard dark brown/black clumps of stuff you sometimes see in BSFL cups. It's not the discarded molts which usually just look like shed skin. Does anyone know what those are? They don't smell like dead bugs or really look like it but can't tell.

2. The medium dubias I ordered from Sympton are huge. Bigger than any roaches I've tried to feed my girl before. Had two questions about em:

a) I've seen conflicting info online about the 'space between the eyes' rule. Is it supposed to be measuring the bug's length, or the bug's width?

b) The biggest roaches seem to be about 1" long, some maybe a little bit more. Some are pretty round too, not just long. Just measured the space between Tifa's eyes and it's more like 3/4" from ridge to ridge (looking down). I'm wondering if anyone would risk trying to feed her one of these just to see how she handles it, or should I be taking this rule really seriously and not even risk it.

I don't think they're anywhere near breeding age nor did I plan on actually breeding any but I'd prefer to just give them away if they're too big for her to eat. I'm sure she'd be happy to try, I just don't wanna watch her choke or anything ))

(So glad I found a place to buy these in person in the future to avoid all the worrying)

thanks!
 
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